New Florence woman wins $100,000 lottery prize

NEW FLORENCE- A woman from New Florence revealed a winning lottery prize of $100,000. Julie Penn, 52, said she had been telling people to play the "Black Pearls" game and that she had a good feeling about them.

Black Pearls is a five dollar game that began Feb. 29. The top prize is $100,000.

"Where I work, I told everybody, 'You need to go buy one of them. I've just got a feeling about them,'" Penn said.

It happened on her way to Easter dinner. Penn and her boyfriend stopped at Crossroads General Store, 110 Johnson in Middletown, where she bought two of the Black Pearls tickets. Penn immediately scratched them off after getting back in the car.

"This is going to be a big one," Penn said. "So, I scratched off one of the nines, and it said $5,000. I thought I was going to faint. I've been sick ever since."

Penn said she is relieved the money will help pay off some bills. Penn said her boss didn't believe her when she called to ask off to claim her prize. She assured him that she wasn't going to quit.